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Southern Colorado to receive a big boost in funding

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PUEBLO — The Arkansas Valley Conduit received $60 million in federal money. The AVC is a planned 130-mile water-delivery system from the Pueblo Dam to communities throughout the Arkansas River Valley in Southeast Colorado.

This funding will speed up the construction timeline and allow for federal drinking water standards to be met more quickly.

The Conduit is the final phase of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which Congress authorized in 1962.

The project is a pipeline that will feed filtered water from Lake Pueblo to 39 communities in the lower Arkansas River Valley.

"Some of the communities down in the lower Arkansas valley has water contaminated by radio nuclei,' said Chris Woodka of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, "We are hoping that fresh water coming through pueblo will alleviate a lot of those water quality problems."

Work is expected to start early next year and be done within the next 8 years.

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